Rickie Lee Jones

Two-time Grammy winner Rickie Lee Jones exploded onto the pop scene in 1978 and has made a career of fearlessly experimenting with her sound and persona over 15 critically acclaimed albums. A cultural phenomenon, Rolling Stone magazine put her on its cover twice in two years, and Saturday Night Live gave her an unprecedented three songs for her second appearance. Rickie is both a character in the songs and the songwriter singing, defying convention with her sometimes brazen sexuality and the mixed bag of jazz, rock and what has come to be known as ‘confessional’ songwriter performances.

Her latest album The Other Side of Desire was written, recorded and rooted in the city of New Orleans, where Jones lives on the opposite side of the street made famous by Tennessee Williams. Produced by John Porter (of Roxy Music) and Mark Howard, this is the first new music Jones has written in over a decade.

“She can sound like a nun who has closed the door in the chapel to sing quietly to herself. She can sound dissolute, louche, exalted, elegant, or like a figure howling against a menacing sadness…She sings like a shy person somehow released of inhibition by singing. Every word she writes and sings seems earned. Her songs are cunning and serious or playful and exuberant but always carefully made…[Jones expresses] a human truth: over time, we cannot be other than ourselves.”- Alec Wilkinson, The New Yorker

News

This week Channel 4’s ‘The Great Songwriters’ featured Blue Raincoat Songs artist Rickie Lee Jones. The show shines a light on the creative process of some of the worlds most renowned songwriters through interviews and exclusive performances. Watch Rickie’s episode via Channel 4 on demand here.